The Eclectic school of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

(''Eclectics'', or ''Eclectici'', el, Ἐκλεκτικοί) was an ancient school of medicine in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. They were so-called because they selected from each sect the opinions which seemed to them most probable. They seemed to have been a branch of the

Methodic school The Methodic school of medicine (''Methodics'', ''Methodists'', or ''Methodici'', el, Μεθοδικοί) was a school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. The Methodic school arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic sch ...

. They were apparently founded by

Archigenes Archigenes ( gr, Αρχιγένης), an ancient Greco-Syrian physician, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Archigenes was the most celebrated of the sect of the Eclectici, and was a native of Apamea in Syria; he practiced at Rome in the ...

. Some of the opinions of these physicians are found in the fragments preserved by

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...

Oribasius Oribasius or Oreibasius ( el, Ὀρειβάσιος; c. 320 – 403) was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julian's retinue. He ...

, Aëtius, etc.; but the doctrines they adopted remain unknown. A closely related school was the Episynthetic school (''Episynthetici''), so called because they heaped up in a manner (''episyntithêmi''), and adopted for their own opinions different, and even opposite, schools. It seems to have been founded by Agathinus of Sparta, the pupil of

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

, and the master of Archigenes, towards the end of the 1st century AD. The only other ancient physician who is mention as having belonged to this sect is Leonides of Alexandria, who may have lived in the 3rd century. Little is known of the opinions of these physicians, or their tenets. In modern

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

, the Eclectic school (''Ris-med'') referred to a movement that seeks to combine the religious and philosophical systems of different lineages in order to develop the best teachings of the whole tradition. It has a

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

character, open to syntheses with classical greek and Western thought.Robin Kornman, 'The Influence of the Epic of King Gesar of Ling on Chögyam Trungpa,' in Fabrice Midal (ed.) ''Recalling Chögyam Trungpa,'' Shambhala Publications, 2005, p.347.

Notes

References

* William Smith, (1857), ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' is an English language encyclopedia first published in 1842. The second, improved and enlarged, edition appeared in 1848, and there were many revised editions up to 1890. The encyclopedia covered law ...

'', pages 387-8, 412-3 {{Ancient Roman medicine Ancient Greek medicine Ancient Roman medicine